Middle Aged and Rage-y

In preparation for our New Years Eve and the upcoming work and school week, I food shopped at my neighborhood Fred Meyers this afternoon and unknowingly ended up in the millennial check out line.

The female checker and the shopper in front of me both had recently turned 21. I know this because they were yucking it up while the checker rang up her groceries.

"Do you like that hard cider? It looks like beer to me. What are you doing tonight to celebrate?" Yuck-ity yuck yuck yuck.

At one point they were talking back and forth so effortlessly, I figured they had to know each other. But they didn't.

Checker finished ringing up Shopper. They said their final goodbyes. And then Checker turned to me.

Checker: "Hello, ma'am."

Me: "Hi, how's your day going so far?"

Checker: "Fine, thanks."

< Silence >

She rang up my groceries and I could only think, "Dang! I'm even wearing my on-trend jeans with holes and I still look like an old lady to her!"

I find myself vascillating between wanting to be acknowledged by millennials and being completely annoyed by them.

There is a pink-haired millennial who rents a place behind our townhouse. I run into him most mornings as I walk Noé to school. He circles with his cell phone in hand, looking ridiculously lost as he wanders his own street in pajama bottoms. It took me about a week to figure out what the hell he was doing. Finally, one day I saw him approach a car that had pulled up. The guy in the car handed him a McDonalds bag and then drove off. He had UberEats delivering him a freaking Egg McMuffin every morning!

As a penny-pinching, middle-aged rage-y mom, this is wrong to me on so many levels.

First off, I can count *five* breakfast places, all of which serve some type of egg sandwich, within a three-block radius of our street. This includes a fast food place that has an almost identical breakfast menu to McDonalds. His legs looked perfectly fine as he wandered down the street looking for his Uber delivery. And if he doesn't want to walk, heaven knows there are plenty of Lime Bikes lying around at any given time on our street.

Second, how much does it cost to get an egg McMuffin delivered to your house? I didn't find out, but the Seattle urban markup must be pretty steep. The closest McDonalds to our neighborhood is about three miles away. Plus delivery and tip, are you kidding? Whatever coding job he has better be pretty dang lucrative.

Third, even if that little pink squirt makes more money than me (which is often the case when you live just a couple miles away from Amazonia and all the other neighborhood tech companies), does he not understand the law of compound interest? I may just tape this article with accompanying charts to his front door. Those little egg sandwiches may only cost him twenty dollars each today, but they will cost him hundreds of dollars a pop by the time he wants to retire. I have another millennial co-worker who has made a really high salary since he graduated college, but ten years later, hasn't saved or invested a cent because he "doesn't trust the stock market." These super smart kids are just incredibly dumb sometimes.

I know some really impressive millennials. We host a Seattle Times intern in our home each summer. Each has been more mature, more gracious, more accomplished than the next. And I'm also quite positive that the generation before me found me just as irritating as I find some of these younger kids. From my vantage point - this generation is the pulse of the country and they certainly have the most energy, and you want to endear yourself to them. But they don't have enough life experience to command respect. It's just a strange place when you realize you are no longer the Up-and-Comer but rather the Judger from Above - The Middle-Aged Rager.

15 Years Ago in Manhattan

December 2002

December 2017

Fifteen years ago, pregnant me was flying through midtown Manhattan with a nervous Ed and an even more nervous taxi driver. I was too busy trying to avoid a taxi cab birth and the inevitably awkward local television news appearance to be scared. The cabbie won, and Noé was delivered inside NYU Medical Center six weeks short of his due date. Little did I know we would soon face much bigger problems than how to tame all that beautiful black baby hair. The last fifteen years? Unbelievably difficult and unbelievably wonderful. Noé's autism has changed the trajectory of our family. Our capacity for love and compassion has been stretched beyond former recognition. We want for very little besides a secure and happy future for him (and maybe some better sleep). 

Happy 15th Birthday, Noécito!

Sidenote: He blew out his candles this year!

Thirteen

Thirteen is all legs and heart, with a dash of moodiness.

Thirteen is keeping a safe distance from your parents in public, but asking to snuggle after a tough middle school day.

Thirteen is taking advanced math, but walking half-way to school without your backpack.

Thirteen is when you finally learn your father's native tongue because your Spanish teacher looks like Miss Venezuela.

Thirteen is eating a full dinner with the family and then promptly going to the kitchen for three bowls of cereal.

Thirteen is calling puberty a "monster that is sucking away my childhood."

Thirteen is pounding on the piano for hours because there are just too many emotions.

Thirteen is alternating between being proud of your older brother with autism and being completely frustrated with him.

Thirteen is texting, jazz band, sleeping in, discovering girls, track meets, drawing in secret, Instagram, and STEM Club.

Thirteen may kill me.

Brunch with Benefits

42nd birthday morning at Biscuit Bitch, Belltown Seattle

When I was fourteen and bussing tables at Elmer's Pancake on weekend mornings, I would see couples wander into the restaurant and spread out a newspaper over their table while they ate their breakfast and sipped their coffee. They would hardly speak to one another, yet they seemed so content. Even as a young teen, the images of those couples represented what I wanted my future to look like: the freedom of adulthood but with the stability of having a loving partner by my side.  

Turns out, real adult life isn't exactly full of long, lazy brunch weekends like I had once assumed. But it is fun to do when we get the chance, like to celebrate my recent birthday. 

Sometimes it is the smallest dreams that really are the sweetest.  

Seattle Adventure: Meeting Jerry

We loved meeting Jerry Greenfield of Ben and Jerry fame! (Noé was not impressed).

We've had a beautiful fall here in Seattle and we've tried be outside to enjoy it all as much as possible!

A few Tuesdays ago, after a long day of work and school, we headed down to the lake for a walk around the path. Ed was running late from work, so I took the boys down to Ben and Jerry's for a cone while we waited for him.

We walked into the ice cream shop, where there was a small crowd gathered around a bearded older gentleman. We headed to the counter to place our order when the man came over to greet us and then asked if he could have a hug. Someone sitting at a table next to us whispered, "It's Jerry!" Asher was the first one to understand which 'Jerry' he was and immediately gave him a great big hug. An ice cream hero in his midst!

At first I had a very real fear that we had won some type of ice cream sweepstakes based on the frequency of our visits or number of cones purchased (how do I explain THAT to people? Jerry from Ben and Jerry's came all the way from Vermont to personally thank us for eating so much of his ice cream! It's not exactly the type of accomplishment that you want for your family). But it turned out he happened to be in town for an environmental conference and often visits his franchised locations while traveling.

Jerry was very personable and a fun conversation ensued. He seemed to enjoy being a minor celebrity. He told Asher the story of how he and Ben met in middle school on Long Island and their dream was always to open an ice cream shop together, which they (obviously) got to do. Asher is now convinced he will rise to stardom and wealth with his middle school BFF.

We ended our conversation with some pictures. Actually it turned into an entire photo shoot's worth of pictures thanks to Noé's strong objection to putting down his ice cream for the photo op.

As I told Asher on our way home, "Good things always happen when you get out into this city!"

DACA editorial

I wrote a FB post in total frustration and despair after 45 announced that he was dismantling DACA. To my shock it got a lot of traction on social media. A couple days after I posted it, I received a call from the Editorial Page Editor at the Seattle Times, asking if I'd be willing to turn the post into an editorial for the newspaper.

Here's that article. Don't read the comments.

Summer '17

Pianos in the Parks, Salt and Straw ice cream, Disneyland and California Adventure, Dodger games, a treasure hunt at Volunteer Park, picnicking at Golden Gardens, kayaking to Duck Island, Outdoors For All, riding the new burnt orange electric cargo bike around town, boogie boarding at Huntington Beach, hiking the rim of Crater Lake, In and Out burgers, fries and shakes, watching the solar eclipse with Grandma and watching the bees suddenly disappear and the crickets chirp,  picking blackberries all over town, swimming at Green Lake, 4th of July fireworks and BBQ at Grandma's house, hiking and playing in the sand at Oxbow Park with cousins, Pips Donuts, camping and tidepooling and hiking the rocky shore and the gorgeous sunset over Canada in the Peninsula, Mariner's Baseball with River, picnicking at Gasworks Park for a 16th Anniversary, biking the Burke-Gilman trail, Ultimate Frisbee camp at Woodland Park, frozen yogurt, biking EVERYWHERE!, Hollywood Walk of Stars, Tepayak and churros from a truck with good friends, mosquitos at Diamond Lake, surprise piano performance at the Portland Art Museum, Mt. Tabor and Voodoo Donuts with good friends, biking to the farmers market at Wallingford, OMSI, marionberry scones and chai and good friends at Gresham Farmers Market, pizza buffet at Track Town, walking through Portland neighborhoods and dreaming, walking around Green Lake, slurpees at 7-11, s'mores and campfires, watching the new middle school be built before our eyes, early morning boot camp at Licton Springs, smoke and hazy hot days, morning runs around East LA, LEGO mega projects, exploring Seward Park, architecture tours of downtown and Queen Anne, exploring International District, playing in the International fountain at dusk, hanging out on Abuelo's porch, drawing classes and long walks along the Alki boardwalk.